In parts of the city, some were hoping the rain that has been so prevalent lately wasn’t going to be a problem. The last time Jackson saw heavy rain, James Garfield Circle in Presidential Hills was covered with water, and cars were stuck in their driveways.

Jackson city officials said since then workers have tackled clogged drains in the neighborhood.

"That night, they came out here and cleaned it up," said Presidential Hills resident Tina Hobson. "They worked. And it rained afterwards, but it's not flooding anymore, so it's going down."

With a fast-moving storm coming through Tuesday night through Wednesday morning, Hobson said she hopes the rain and the floodwaters don't make a comeback.

"Long as we are protected and as long as it goes down," Hobson said. "Long as it goes down, that's the only thing I'm worried about."

"We'll have someone watching the weather at all times, probably starting around midnight," said the Rankin County Emergency Operations Center's Chris Walley. "Our threat is 2 to 7 in the morning, so we're just planning on having somebody here. If we need to, we can activate our emergency response team. We'll monitor where our fire departments are going to also through our dispatch. Trees down or anything like that."

The National Weather Service's Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Okla., said the risk of tornadoes touching down Tuesday is greatest in northeast Texas, northern Louisiana, northwest Mississippi, southeast Missouri and much of Arkansas. That system is expected to hit much of the eastern United States on Wednesday.

The severe weather threat comes on the heels of record high temperatures across a swath of the central U.S. Strong winds, heavy storms and possible tornadoes are possible in an area from Texas to Alabama and as far north as Michigan, according to the National Weather Service.

The temperature in the central Missouri town of Columbia reached 77 degrees on Monday, a record high for January. The spring-like conditions came after a spell of freezing rain, and forecasts predict early-morning snow on Wednesday.